BartBlog

As It Turns Out, A Lot

I’m anything but a starry-eyed optimist and not prone to spreading false hope, but think of how far we’ve progressed:

At the dawn of the 19th century, the predominant form of government in the world was monarchy and the experiment in democratic self-rule that was the United States had not even been in business for twenty years; slavery was accepted around the world and even the children of the ‘free’ poor worked right alongside their parents, often 16 and 18 hour days, seven days a week; cities were reeking sump holes with residents frequently dumping their chamberpots out the window and animal dung and garbage covered the streets; sanitation was unheard of and medicine was crude, and patients often died from minor wounds that became infected by the doctor working on them; food-borne illnesses also thrived due to ignorance of bacteria and food preservation; and most Americans were illiterate. Yet by the end of the century, slavery was outlawed in much of the world; most monarchs were controlled by a parliament; sewage systems had been installed in most major cities, along with flush toilets in all but the poorest homes; bans on child labor had been enacted; advances in science had lessened the chance that patients would die of infected wounds, as both the wounds and the doctor’s hands were cleaner; food preservation and sanitation had nearly been mastered; and most Americans had learned how to read and write in their local public school.

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